BMW ORACLE Racing won the 33rd America’s Cup yacht race in February 2010, beating the Swiss team, Alinghi, decisively in the first two races of the best-of-three contest.

BMW ORACLE Racing’s victory in the America’s Cup challenge was a lesson in sailing skill, as one of the world’s most experienced crews reached speeds as fast as 30 knots—three times faster than wind speed and, some say, faster than any boat in history. But if you listen to the crew in their postrace interviews, you’ll notice that what they talk about is technology.

“The story of this race is in the technology,” says Ian Burns, design coordinator for BMW ORACLE Racing.

From the drag-resistant materials encasing its hulls to its unprecedented 223-foot wing sail, the BMW ORACLE Racing’s trimaran, named USA, is a one-of-a-kind technological juggernaut. No less impressive are the electronics used to guide the vessel and fine-tune its performance. Each crewmember is equipped with a PDA on his wrist that has customized data for his job: what the load balance is on a particular rope, for example, or the current aerodynamic performance of the wing sail. The helmsman’s sunglasses display graphical and numeric data to help him fine-tune the boat’s direction while he keeps two hands on the wheel and visually scans the sea, the boat, the crew, the sails, and the wing.